Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to inform the House that April has been declared Dental Health Month.

One of my constituents, Dr. Raffy Chouljian, is president of the Toronto East Dental Society and he wants us all to be more aware of our dental health every day, not just dental health month.

I want to inform the House that the average Canadian consumes approximately the equivalent of 40 kilograms, or 88 pounds of sugar each year. No wonder the House gets a little bit raucous sometimes. Sugar, as we know, is one of the main causes of dental problems.

This past weekend in my riding of Scarborough Centre, the Albert Campbell and Cedarbrae Libraries held book displays and had questions answered by local dentists. In addition, the Toronto East Dental Society has donated a number of dental patient educational books to the Scarborough Public Library system to help promote dental health.

I commend Dr. Chouljian and his association on their hard work and ask that all Canadians take a moment this month to think about their dental health.

Mr. Speaker, I signal the achievements of a distinguished Canadian medical scientist. Dr. Judith Hall, educated at Wellesley College, the University of Washington and Johns Hopkins, is currently head of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia's children's hospital.

She combines world class expertise in pediatrics and genetics. She has been able to develop and apply new genetic techniques to patient care, particularly in respect to children. She has now been named Officer of the Order of Canada for her internationally recognized research on human congenital anomalies and children's growth disturbances.

Mr. Speaker, the Reform leader's grand dream of a united alternative continues to implode. Not only is it proving to be incapable of uniting the right, but it seems to be tearing apart the old Reform Party.

Twelve Reform MPs, or 20% of the caucus, have publicly stated that they want nothing to do with the Reform leader's latest scheme and other Reform MPs have announced they do not plan to run with the party in the next election. The only Reformers who seem to like the united alternative are the ones who see it as a means to get rid of their current leader. They are the sensible ones.

As Susan Riley so succinctly wrote in the Ottawa Citizen last Friday:

If the right keeps uniting this way, they're going to have to print longer ballots on election day to accommodate all of the emerging splinter groups, rival factions and breakaway rumps.

Mr. Speaker, Canada often boasts about how it is a world leader in the promotion of civil and political rights. But last week, in one of its reports, the United Nations Committee on Human Rights took the federal government to task for its treatment of aboriginals.

It said that Ottawa has not given effect to the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples with respect to first nations lands and resources. Yet these are fundamental considerations in the process leading towards first nations self-government.

The Bloc Quebecois joins with the UN in urging the federal government to quickly and energetically implement the royal commission's recommendations with respect to lands and resources. It is time the Liberals stopped patting themselves on the back and understood that, for first nations, Canada is still a long way from being the best country in the world.

Mr. Speaker, a government study released in March showed that students are among those hardest hit by the changes to the employment insurance program. For example, students who work part time while in school who have no chance of collecting benefits are still forced to pay inflated premiums.

The most shocking thing we have learned is that those responsible for this problem are themselves students. There are three of them.

One is the Minister of Finance, a graduate of the school of accounting sleight of hand.

Another is the Minister of Human Resources Development Canada, a member of the school's debating society who is skilled in the art of defending positions dictated by others.

Lastly, there is the Prime Minister, the schoolyard bully, who sees no need for studies like the one released in March. Such studies only get in the way of stealing the lunches of weaker students.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to draw to your attention that today is law day. We in Canada are celebrating the 17th anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The theme for law day is access to justice, a theme I strongly support.

Public legal information and education activities have been organized across Canada by the Canadian Bar Association involving hundreds of lawyers. The aim is to make the law more accessible to all Canadians and to expand their knowledge of their rights within Canada's justice system.

I offer my encouragement and my support to the Canadian Bar Association as well as to the many community groups here in Ottawa and across Canada in their endeavours on Law Day.

I invite all members to join me in extending best wishes to all involved for a successful law day and especially the members of the Canadian Bar Association who, with their president, Mr. Barry Gorlick, are here in the gallery today.

Mr. Speaker, today Canadians, and especially victims of crime, finally receive some legislated form of victims rights. It is unfortunate that we have had to wait so long for these relatively simple reforms to our criminal law. For six years the Reform Party has been pressuring the government.

In response to a Reform motion by the member for Langley—Abbotsford and supported by the majority of the last parliament, the former Minister of Justice and now Minister of Health promised legislation would be introduced in the fall of 1996. It was not.

Last October the justice committee made 17 recommendations toward improvements to victims rights.

Today, at long last, we have finally heard from the Minister of Justice. Six years; why did it take so long? And, still we are only half way there. The government still has much to do in the area of corrections and conditional release.

On behalf of victims, I seriously question the government's priorities in respect of victims rights.

Mr. Speaker, the separatists have just released a series of documents they call “chantiers” or works in progress. In these new documents they hold doggedly on to their determination to break apart our country of Canada.

Yet some time ago Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard said that the idea of sovereignty was still at the early stages. It seems to be time this project was shelved.

The Bloc is coming back with the same idea, the separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada. The separatists ought to bear in mind that Quebeckers have twice rejected that option.

Mr. Speaker, the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba has been devastated by a supreme court decision to take a four year old boy away from his biological grandfather and give custody to his adopted grandparents in Connecticut.

The grandfather did not lose custody for neglect. The court based its decision on money. The Sagkeeng man lost custody because he is poor and the American couple is rich.

Discrimination on the basis of money or social condition is unacceptable to Canadians. Incredibly, this kind of discrimination is not illegal in Canada.

Two days ago the Liberal government had a chance to make sure that what happened in Sagkeeng would never happen again. Shockingly, it voted down Bill S-11, a bill that would have outlawed discrimination on the basis of social condition. Instead of standing up for the people of Sagkeeng and aboriginal children everywhere, the minister of Indian affairs and her parliamentary secretary from Manitoba chose to toe the Liberal government's line.

Mr. Speaker, the sovereignists have most decidedly understood nothing about the choice of Quebeckers. Twice, in 1980 and in 1995, in two referendums, Quebeckers have chosen to remain within Canada.

In the past two days the Bloc Quebecois has made public a series of documents. No doubt in large part inspired by their new researcher and former premier, Jacques Parizeau, they are trying to again stir up trouble among Quebecers.

The sovereignists are willfully deaf. Instead of respecting Quebec's determination to remain within Canada, they are trying to perpetuate political instability by talking of separation.

Mr. Speaker, today I want to congratulate the residents of the municipality of Clare for their generous efforts.

These people had long awaited the construction of a multi purpose building, which would house only a curling rink and accommodate trade exhibitions, farmers' markets, craft shows and such.

The dream is now a reality through the work of a group of volunteers who generously gave their time and energy to this project. Under the leadership of Charles Surette, these people mobilized the rest of the community and the Yarmouth HDRC and set to work providing 2,000 hours of volunteer labour, so that soon life will be better for the residents of Clare.

It appears that in the municipality of Clare civic pride and the willingness to volunteer are alive and well.

Mr. Speaker, Rosaire Morin, senior editor of the magazine l'Action Nationale , died yesterday at the age of 77, after an exceptional life of action, thought, research and writing.

Up to the very last minute, Rosaire Morin was working for his people, to emancipate French Canadians in his youth and to liberate the Quebec people thereafter.

In the course of the debate preceding the selection of the Quebec flag in 1948, he was one of the primary players in the important event known as the States-General of French-Canada.

The flight of Quebeckers' savings was his last issue. In this one as in all other battles, Rosaire Morin was totally professional and committed.

I reiterate the words of the president of the national action league “One of the great artisans of modern Quebec has just died. He followed in the steps of the great leaders. He died on the brink of a country he fought for so hard”.

Mr. Speaker, the Canada Export Award ceremony will be held in Toronto next October.

Since the program was first instituted 16 years ago, more than 300 enterprises have entered their names.

The Canadian government is pleased to take part in this ceremony and pay tribute to the accomplishments of Canadian enterprises in industries as varied as food, technology, telecommunications and transportation.

We wish all entrants the best of luck and every success. I hope that there will be numerous representatives from Quebec among them.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank the city of Toronto, Toronto Hydro and the West Toronto Junction team, who, in partnership with Human Resources Development Canada, are working toward the revival of the area in my riding known as the Junction, which at one time was the heart of the West Toronto village.

In the largest underground project undertaken in its 88 year history, Toronto Hydro will invest $19 million to take down hydro poles, overhead wires and transformers and will replace them with new street lights, underground cable and transformers. Once completed, the West Toronto Junction team and the city of Toronto will undertake a major streetscape improvement program. The federal government has to date contributed $100,000 toward rebuilding the local labour partnerships.

On April 9th, the groundbreaking ceremony took place and we are now one step closer to the dream of restoring this neighbourhood, making it a vibrant, healthy and prosperous place to live and work.

I would congratulate the West Toronto Junction team, the city of Toronto and Toronto Hydro for their initiative in reviving this important historic neighbourhood.

I rise on behalf of the people of Okanagan—Coquihalla to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

After three years of a bloody stalemate on the western front, it took four divisions of Canadians, led for the first time by a Canadian, to advance with a resounding tactical victory.

The key at Vimy was superior planning and troops with a determination to defy the odds. After weeks of practice on a full scale replica of the ridge, the Canadians shelled the well-entrenched Germans for two weeks before risking a frontal assault.

When the time came to remove the remaining Germans from their superior position, the Canadians advanced slowly up the ridge behind a wall of fire provided by the Canadian artillery. After heavy fighting, the Germans were driven off the ridge at a cost of 11,000 Canadian casualties.

To historians, Vimy Ridge is a spectacular tactical victory studied for its own merits. For Canadians, however, it marks the birth of our nation.